Cirque du Sail: Acrobats aboard

The two French acrobats continue to twirl and swoop, their flying silhouettes growing darker as the sun lowers in the sky behind them.

It's a sumptuous image that hushes the crowd who stand gathered, not under a circus big top, but on the banks of a jetty.

This, of course is no ordinary acrobatic show, but one performed entirely on a lurching 12-meter yacht in harbors across the world, according to CNN.

"They use the whole boat like it's one big gymnastics apparatus," said Dwight Jones, manager at Seattle's Elliott Bay Marina , which recently hosted the enchanting La Loupiote show.

"You couldn't ask for a more dramatic stage -- people can watch from the shore or take their own dinghy and see it from the water."

A family affair

For acrobat couple Lechifflart, 42, and Franck Rabilier, 44, their distinctive yellow yacht is not simply a stage -- it's also the floating home they share with two daughters; Loeva, 13, and Ondja, five.

"The eldest has done some shows with us, playing a puppet, but the youngest is still too small," said Rabilier.

"We're home-schooling them and at the beginning of each year they go back to France to do their exams."

Since setting sail from Brittany in north west France in 2004, the free-spirited family has traveled from port to port across the globe, performing their remarkable show and surviving on donations alone.

"They just pass a hat around at the end," Jones explained. "People can't believe they're seeing this fantastic performance for free -- it really generates a sense of generosity."

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